Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/105

 THE SONG OF THE WOMEN

(Lady Dufferin's Fund for Medical Aid to the Women of India.)

shall she know the worship we could do her?

The walls are high and she is very far.

How shall the women's message reach unto her

Above the tumult of the packed bazar?

Free wind of March, against the lattice blowing,

Bear thou our thanks lest she depart unknowing.

Go forth across the fields we may not roam in,

Go forth beyond the trees that rim the city

To whatsoe'er fair place she hath her home in,

Who dowered us with wealth of love and pity.

Out of our shadow pass and seek her singing—

"I have no gifts but Love alone for bringing."

Say that we be a feeble folk who greet her,

But old in grief, and very wise in tears;

Say that we, being desolate, entreat her

That she forget us not in after years; 91